The New South Wales Farmers Association has told a state inquiry into dingoes in national parks that wild dogs must be controlled across farms and public land alike, because they kill both livestock and native animals such as koalas, Beef Central reported.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) estimates that wild dogs cost Australian agriculture up to $302 million a year, mainly through stock losses. In its submission, the association said predation on sheep, goats and calves also cuts breeding rates and pushes producers in heavily affected areas out of small stock altogether. It also described the mental strain on landholders who repeatedly find animals maimed.
Craig Huf, vice chair of the association's cattle committee, runs cattle beside a 5,000-hectare national park in the state's northeast that he says shelters dingoes and wild dogs. "You can't credibly champion koala conservation while staying silent on a documented cause of koala mortality," he said. The submission cites a 2019 study by Matthew Gentle and others in south-east Queensland, in which canine DNA from wild dogs was found on the remains of 11 of 12 koalas thought to have been killed by predators.
The association backs the "nil tenure" approach, which manages wild dogs across every kind of land, private farms, parks, state forests and neighbouring jurisdictions, and which it says has worked in south-east NSW for more than two decades. Its main worry is the Australian Capital Territory, which is moving to recognise dingoes as a distinct native species; farmers near Namadgi National Park fear that will mean less control over time. Victoria stopped baiting in its Far Northwest in 2024.
NSW Farmers wants one classification of dingoes and wild dogs across jurisdictions. Huf said the aim was not to wipe the animals out but to manage their impact rather than treat them as untouchable. The story was reported by Lydia Burton.
Photo: Benjamint444 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Beef Central
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